After 21 years, Thumper's announces the final last call

Updated 10:00 pm, Sunday, October 15, 2006

Gay Fathers Association of Seattle members, from left, Jim Wilkinson, Doug Leighton, Jim Jamerson and Michael Wilson, hang out at the bar Thursday after one of their twice-monthly support group meetings. "Gays feel completely comfortable going anywhere" now, not just gay bars, says Thumper's co-owner Nathan Benedict. less

Gay Fathers Association of Seattle members, from left, Jim Wilkinson, Doug Leighton, Jim Jamerson and Michael Wilson, hang out at the bar Thursday after one of their twice-monthly support group meetings. "Gays ... more

When Thumper's opened on the outskirts of Capitol Hill 21 years ago, some patrons worried about its large plate-glass windows facing East Madison Street. There were no curtains or tinted glass, no measure of anonymity.

Customers sat away from the windows. The bar's accountant was nervous about being seen inside, of being found out, co-owner Steve Nyman recalled this week.

"He was down crawling on his hands and knees," said Nyman, 63.

The well-known gay bar will close Saturday, the latest example of Seattle's rapid redevelopment. Its history reflects changing attitudes toward gays -- from the bar's first night, to last week, when Stan Brownlow, 47, sat unfazed at the bar's windows as traffic passed outside.

But to an extent, the changes also contributed to the bar's undoing.

"Gays feel completely comfortable going anywhere," not just gay bars, said co-owner Nathan Benedict, Nyman's life and business partner.

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The bar was packed that first night in 1985. It wasn't the first gay bar in Seattle where people could see inside, but it was one of the first. Amid that opening night's revelry was the sense that gays were ready to open the curtains.

Over the years, with each shot tossed back and each cocktail sipped, Thumper's was more than a reflection of changing times. Friendships were made. During the worst of the AIDS epidemic, glasses were raised to toast those who were lost, and raised again to ease the pain of "the constant worry as to who was next and when," Benedict said.

"It's a little cliche to say, but this was a gay 'Cheers,' " Brownlow said.

Another man, burly and graying with a buzz cut, sat nearby.

"There was a group of people who always sat together. They took care of (another regular) when he got sick, and then they tended to all of his affairs."

He teared up, remembering.

Maybe Thumper's regulars will find another bar, he said. "But I don't think that's going to happen. I have no idea where I'm going to go. Maybe I'll just stay home."

"The regulars," Peytonsaid when asked what he'd miss most. "All a pain and a burden, but loved nevertheless."

The man with the buzz cut, who wouldn't give his name, had his own answer: "The bartender who goes out for a cigarette, so you have to fix your own drinks."

"So they're made the right way," Brownlow added.

Nyman wanted a place like this. Most of the gay bars were "sleazy," he said. He didn't want a place that was going to be a meat market or a dance club. Drugs weren't winked at.

He wanted a place where gay people could feel comfortable just sitting and talking.

Over countless remodeling jobs, a formal dining room was added, then a fireplace, two patios.

"There's been a lot of crying this week," Nyman said, as word of the closing has gotten around.

There are a lot of reasons why it's closing. Taxes and the state's minimum wage went up. The Liquor Control Board relaxed requirements on serving food, which brought more bars and competition. Also, Nyman had a brain tumor removed earlier this year.

"I'm tired," he said.

The market for apartments has grown on Capitol Hill as more of them become condos, and Barrientos Developers offered top dollar to buy the bar's land.

The bar, at 15th Avenue and East Madison Street, will become an 80-unit apartment complex, part of the neighborhood's own makeover where upscale apartment complexes -- one even has a Zen garden -- are going up.

It was time for the couple to take a break and spend time together, Benedict said.

But times also have changed, Benedict, 52, said.

"The business model we had in '85 is probably no longer appropriate. It's completely different now ... Which is kind of great because the whole purpose of gay liberation was meant to be free of gay stereotypes, which has sort of come to fruition in Seattle at least," he said.

The neighborhood is changing. The groups coming into the bar now are gay and straight, Benedict said.

And that raises a question, Benedict said.

"If you're going to have a gay bar, we feel we need to step back to evaluate what its current needs are and what should come next," he said.

Maybe so, said Greg Brown, 53, who sat in the patio, but there's still a need for the kind of haven a gay bar provides.

"You have to put up with straight people, friends, neighbors, relatives. You always have to conform to what straight people expect," he said. "At work, you see all the little pictures with people's spouses and children; that says you don't belong."

Ron Nebeker, 38, and Richard McLaughlin, 33, had their first date at the bar seven months ago, and were there again this week. They were off to the Broadway Grill later.

"If I wanted to, I could kiss him here," Nebeker said. "I wouldn't feel as comfortable at Red Robin."

Benedict said that for years, his and Lyman's nights at the bar were a "happy blur." The nights would usually start at 5 p.m., and he and Lyman would not get home "until sunrise after reliving the entire night with our employees -- examining who did and said what and why."

As the bar's own last call approached, Lyman confessed, "I called and asked if I could get out of selling."